A Working Man Review: Jason Statham Shines In David Ayer's Formulaic Thriller

In Jason Statham's nearly 30-year career as a movie star, he has largely succeeded by the maxim that if it ain't broke, there's no need to fix it. "It" in this case being the borderline formulaic approach to straightforward action thrillers that have kept him as household name from his early days as a Guy Ritchie stock company mainstay to his current singular position as the pre-eminent bald, British, martial artist on screen. There have been outliers, to be sure. Films like 2005's "Revolver" and 2013's "Hummingbird" have taxed the upper registers of his range, stretching his abilities to their limits and highlighting nuance he's seldom had to tap into since. But the bread and butter has remained "highly skilled surly guy in need of righteous ass to kick." His latest, "A Working Man," is no exception. In fact, it may have reached a new low in seeing how boilerplate a premise can be while still leading to a satisfying moviegoing experience.

Last year, Statham teamed with filmmaker David Ayer on "The Beekeeper" (which Looper also reviewed), a pleasant surprise within the graveyard of the Q1 release schedule at the multiplex. The film fit within the current ongoing trend of "John Wick"-adjacent shoot-em-ups, with the added benefit of a franchisable mythology as its backdrop. Yes, it was another movie where Statham delivers dropkicks and head shots with equal aplomb, but the absurdist world-building at play suggested the possibility for a new series and ample sequels. Instead, the pair have reunited on something even simpler, even less ambitious, but no less entertaining in its gleeful violence.

This time out, Jason Statham plays Levon Cade, a construction foreman who lives in his truck. We know from his ill-fitting, blue collar garb that this current life he's living is a departure from some dark, violent past. Why else does his hard hat look like an action figure accessory and his stoic dedication to productivity feel more like trauma therapy than an actual vocation? We only get a small taste of his combat prowess when he single handedly fights off some debtors who try to rough up one of his men. So, that means within the first 20 minutes of the movie, there must be some trajectory-shifting tragedy that will unleash the hidden fury he is clearly working hard to contain.

Will it be something nefarious that befalls the innocent young daughter he only gets to see for two hours every week? Or perhaps those loan sharks will come back for his colleague? No, something happens to Jenny (Arianna Rivas), the beautiful college-age daughter of his employer (Michael Peña in a small but pivotal role). She gets kidnapped into an awful trafficking scheme and Levon must go back on his code and dispense with massive quantities of bloodshed in order to get her back.

It's such a well-worn paradigm, even outside of Statham's oeuvre. Action thrillers in this mold have been a mainstay, but tend to excel in modern times the more they're able to appease a reactionary audience: everyone wants to steal your children and the cops can't stop them — but One Man can. Somehow, Statham, perhaps by virtue of not being American, is able to distance his protagonists from the underlying stereotypical jingoism of this archetype. However, the set-up of this film lacks some of the brazen charm the last David Ayer/Statham team-up brought us. There's a po-faced absurdity within how emotional and dramatic the film's first act feels. All that becomes easier to forgive once the brutality takes center stage.

"A Working Man" is adapted from a novel by Chuck Dixon, a writer who spent a significant chunk of his career scribing Batman comics in the 1990s. Realizing this narrative's origins, it makes so much more sense how the film suffers something of an identity crisis from its first act to the second and third. David Ayer's script comes from what was once to be a television adaptation of the novel from Sylvester Stallone. The heavy sincerity and comically maudlin introductions feel like the product of Stallone's hand, and once that's all been established, Ayer hews closer to Dixon's pulpier, near comic-like approach. 

Rather than the more straightforward villains thrillers like this thrive on, the cast of baddies and their many associates here are more colorful and strange, quirky and left field. Even Levon's own supporting cast is pretty ridiculous, from his blind archer war buddy (played by David Harbour) to the eccentric psychologist father-in-law who blames Levon for the death of his daughter. Everyone you meet exists to be as odd and unlikable as possible, so that once Jason Statham's character is let off the chain, the carnage he causes can transform into catharsis. 

On streaming, "A Working Man" might be a middling affair, but in an audience, theatergoers' raw reactions to the visceral fight scenes and the unhinged savagery on display become like a Greek chorus and it enhances the proceedings. Ayer blocks and stages the hand-to-hand sequences not for balletic back and forths, but for blunt, decisive displays of ruthlessness. No stone is left unturned when it comes to satisfying the audience's blood lust for seeing these oddball baddies meet sufficiently punishing ends. 

On some level, living in an uncertain and murky world where the bad guys always seem to win and the systems we're supposed to rely upon continue to fail us, there's just something comforting about Statham, whether he's The Transporter or The Beekeeper or even "A Working Man." It doesn't matter how regressive or repetitive these flicks are. They scratch a necessary itch.

"A Working Man" hits theaters on March 28.